Thousands of leaked emails from Democratic National Committee bigwigs touched on topics as varied as donut licking and other unhealthy eating habits to sandbagging an upstart Vermont senator in the press.
WikiLeaks’ data dump of 20,000 messages last week confirms what Bernie Sanders' backers long suspected: the Democratic National Committee (DNC) favored Hillary Clinton long before she clinched the nomination. The leak of DNC internal communications also sealed the fate of embattled chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who ceded the gavel and left this week’s convention early.
No real bombshells have surfaced from the trove, presumably hacked by the Russians to stoke tensions in an already fractious party. But the correspondence offers an inside look at the pay-to-play aspect of the national committee and how DNC flaks deal with journalists.
Off-the-record messages between DNC apparatchiks and reporters show how the party tried to butter up media outlets to boost Clinton and downplay then-rival Sanders.
Some emails hint at more serious issues, such as hiding details of a joint fundraising deal with Clinton that siphoned money through state-level Dem parties.
Clinton, who’s no doubt sick of talking about email scandals, has yet to answer to the shady fundraising tactics. But she did condemn a DNC staffer’s suggestion to ask questions about Sanders’ atheism to undermine his chances with religious voters in southern states.
One local operative who figures prominent in the leak is DNC Northern California finance director Erik Stowe, who exchanged messages about the Golden State Warriors, a Huffington Post article about “pulling out” as a form of birth control and a big-money fundraiser hosted by former State Controller Steve Westly in Atherton.
Responding to a query from Stowe, DNC national finance director Jordan Kaplan describes a conference call with President Obama as having something to do with “small business shit.”
In an email from May, the wife of Capt. Sully Sullenberger, the Bay Area-based airline pilot of “Miracle on the Hudson” fame, asked Stowe for a favor. Could he find out if President Obama would make good on an offer he made seven years ago to give them a tour of Air Force One? “[We] never followed up to make that happen,” she wrote. “And now in the blink of an eye 7 years has passed.”
Tom Steyer, the San Francisco billionaire who founded a climate change super PAC, got a passing mention. Unfortunately, so did his social security number.
A couple staffers flagged a San Francisco Chronicle interview in which Sanders discusses campaign differences with Clinton.
“I don’t think we should do anything on this but wanted to flag,” DNC communications official Mark Paustenbach wrote in the May 19 message. “He’s in denial.”
In an email two days later, Paustenbach mentioned urging reporters to write about how Sanders campaign was “a mess” after a computer glitch compromised Clinton voter data.
“Wondering if there’s a good Bernie narrative for a story, which is that Bernie never ever had his act together, that his campaign was a mess,” he wrote to DNC communications colleague Luis Miranda.
Other reporters weren’t even given the time of day. Emails from a Fox News freelancer asking for a DNC response to one of Donald Trump’s misogynistic sound bites apparently went unanswered.
“The asshole from fox emailed us again,” DNC spokeswoman Rachel Palermo wrote. “I did some research and there’s still no ‘fuck you’ emoji, unfortunately.”
An especially entertaining email thread involved a DNC media booker named Pablo Manriquez whose clapback to higher-ups has gone viral.
Here’s a link to the WikiLeaks landing page for DNC email leak. Pro tip: put an expletive in the search bar to turn up the some of the more colorful banter.
Once a crook always a crook. She cannot be trusted to be to hold any office. Lying seems to run in the family
The latest spin from Hillary’s folks is that this is all the Russians fault, but who really cares. The DNC staffers really did write those emails, that’s why Debbie is out. The system was rigged from the get-go.
Hillary and her crew want to make who hacked the emails the story. it is not. The emails themselves are the story–politics as usual.
Correctomundo. Hillary is so used to explaining that guns are doing the shooting while ignoring who pulled the trigger, that now she’s trying to blame the messenger, rather than discussing what’s in the emails.
Hillary should hold a press conference to explain what happened.
http://goo.gl/trP8MM
Oh, wait. She would have to answer questions.
Dumb idea. Nevermind.
The angry-chick email is probably the best among all 20,000 emails. https://wikileaks.org/dnc-emails/emailid/2946
Watch “Clinton Cash” on YouTube. Released on July 23, than go see ‘Hillary’s America.’
I love how some people twist this around to be Hillary’s fault that the DNC favored her, and that it was reflected in e-mails. Hillary didn’t write or send or participate in any of these e-mails! And “Clinton Cash” is totally based on lies, as is “Hillary’s America.” Republican trash. Instead read this: https://www.amazon.com/Hunting-President-Ten-Year-Campaign-Destroy/dp/0312273193
Dead wrong. Hillary is totally based on lies.
I watched it. It is excruciatingly documented or they would be sued for libel.
What needs to happen is everyone needs to vote geeen just to show HC and Trump how much we think of them.
Rudi has become completely unhinged. Giuliani has become as loose with facts and the truth as his fellow traveler Donny. The latest example, this morning on national TV Rudi made the only Trump worthy charge that Hillary Clinton had broken federal law. The Little Mussolini clone, shyster lawyer, and former prosecutor making that kind of intentional factually false statement makes him a candidate for a Mussolini/Trump condoned war crime; a good old fashioned public horse whipping. As they have multiple times, Republican’s again spent years, countless millions, and umpteen investigations proving, as always, that very fact untrue. But as Republican leader Kevin McCarthy admitted, they did once again succeed in dishonestly sullying Hillary’s reputation and lower their opponents poll numbers. Crazy Rudi is just an embarrassing Republican accessory after the fact
> As they have multiple times, Republican’s again spent years, countless millions, and umpteen investigations proving, as always, that very fact untrue.
Don’t Republicans know that “untrue fact” is an contradiction? And, conversely, a “true fact” is an oxymoron. The definition of “fact” is “something that is true”.
So, if Republicans spent countless millions, and umpteen investigations “proving” an untrue fact, wouldn’t they be wasting their time?
And, why would Democrats care that Republicans would be so foolish as to waste their time trying to prove untrue facts?
Would Democrats be happier if Republicans spent their time proving true facts?
What would be a “true fact” that Democrats don’t already know, that they would want Republicans to prove?
If it was so easy for the Russians to allegedly hack DNC emails, why wouldn’t it be just as easy for the Russians to hack Clinton’s personal server where she readily divulged Top Secret and Classified government information while employed as the Secretary of State?